


All The Things You Might Have Said (The Barns Dance Remix)

by Evil_Little_Dog



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Friendship/Love, Inspired by Fanfiction, Multi, Remix Redux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-04-05 11:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4178862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/Evil_Little_Dog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day at the Barns, searching for hidden treasure amongst the dreamt objects. </p><p>A remix of Katilara's <i>Things you said after it was over</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Things You Might Have Said (The Barns Dance Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katilara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katilara/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Things You Said...](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3785866) by [momebie (katilara)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katilara/pseuds/momebie). 



“We’re going to the Barns.” 

Blue heard Adam’s voice in her head, repeating those words. Of all the strange things in Henrietta, the Barns seemed at times second only to Cabeswater. Did Niall Lynch pull the entire piece of property out of his dreams, or had he found something that looked enough like a dream, he decided to make it his own? With its collection of barns in various states of decay and its house that seemed to ramble about at will and flowers that grew absolutely nowhere else and sleeping cattle, awaiting something to wake them, the Barns had the feeling of a fairy tale. The magical dream items inside the house and collected in various outlying structures only added to its mystique. 

For reasons unknown to Blue – perhaps under Gansey’s goading – Ronan decided those dream items needed cataloguing. So they loaded up in the BMW and drove up to the Barns for the day. They’d brought sandwiches and drinks (and yogurt for Blue) in preparation for the work ahead. Since the electricity was on – or something was on, considering the toaster worked without an electrical cord and the refrigerator hummed its own monotonous refrain when Blue opened the door to stash the food and drinks – and there was water pressure, they could stay the day. 

“Without Gansey complaining about needing a bathroom,” Ronan said. 

Gansey replied without heat, “Some of us can’t whip it out like you do, Lynch.” He gestured toward Blue. 

Ronan snorted. Blue shot a glare at Gansey. It was fun when Gansey picked on Ronan, much less so when he picked on her. Especially for something she had no control over, like her father’s X chromosome influencing her to be a girl rather than a boy. Though, truth be told, she appreciated a working toilet and sink. Sometimes their past adventures left her wanting one or both of them while her bladder complained at hiking through a forest to return to a car to drive down a bouncy road to reach anything that looked like civilization (or had an available working restroom). “Okay!” she said in a sharper tone than normal. “Toilets are important. Now that that’s out of the way, can we get to work?” 

Gansey’s answering look gave her the impression he was sticking up for her. Blue arched an eyebrow at him and he grinned, turning away and striding deeper into the house. At her shoulder, Adam said, “This is going to be a long day.”

“I know.” Blue couldn’t hide her smile. Didn’t need to. “Isn’t it great?” Adam’s bland expression provided no real answer. 

Ronan crashed through the house, opening and closing doors, slamming drawers closed again, digging into closets and corners of rooms. Adam helped when he could, sometimes looking like a walking mound of clothes or blankets. At some point, Ronan stuck a hat on Adam’s head. Gansey marveled over _every_ thing, his wonderment at the dream items something that both fascinated and charmed Blue, not that she’d ever let Gansey see how fascinated or charmed she was. She had her pride, after all. Adam caught her eye while he and Ronan rummaged through a desk that had a somewhat whimsical, Seussical appearance. Blue wondered if Adam had told Ronan their secret. She couldn’t very well ask, but she wondered. Adam arched his eyebrows at something Ronan found. 

“What is it?” 

Ronan snorted, holding it up. “Gyroscope.” 

Gansey started across the room, plucking the toy from Ronan’s hand. “These are marvelous,” he said. 

Rolling his eyes, Ronan mouthed, ‘Marvelous,’ behind Gansey’s shoulder. Blue smothered a laugh in the thin scarf she wore. Adam’s brows arched again, curious at her amusement. He hadn’t seen Ronan’s mouth move. To keep from sputtering, Blue asked, “Are we looking for anything in particular?” 

Ronan slammed the desk drawer shut – he still had a penchant for slamming drawers and doors. “Anything with my father’s writing on it.” 

Adam’s expression was telling but Blue didn’t know why. Was something going on she didn’t know about? Should she know about it? A quick glance at Gansey didn’t enlighten her – he didn’t know either, and was studiously playing with the gyroscope as if it was the most important thing in the room. Blue scowled at Adam. He ignored her or there wasn’t any way to communicate just using eyebrows what was going on, she wasn’t quite sure which. “Your dad’s writing,” Blue said. “Dream things?” 

Straightening, Ronan gave her his most Ronan look – implacable, a little cold, absolutely intense. “Anything.” 

With no other information forthcoming, Blue turned her attention back to her own search. After cataloguing a pair of boots with a strange humming sound around them as well as a lamp that shared the desk’s Suessical peculiarity – not to mention, glowed with the same phosphorescence of lightning bugs, had no cord, and grew brighter the longer someone sat near it – she found a photo album. A glance around confirmed the boys were distracted by their own discoveries – Adam and Ronan with their heads bent together over something, their shoulders brushing against each other and their love for one another so evident, it nearly made Blue’s throat ache with the sight of it and Gansey, studying what appeared to be a particularly appalling snow globe – gave Blue leave to thumb open the album. She reviewed three pages of joy – Niall Lynch, his wife, his eldest son, Declan and Ronan, Ronan and Matthew, the family together without Niall, then again with him – and she had to close the album up and replace it quietly where she found it. 

The Barns were so intrinsically Ronan, she couldn’t imagine them really belonging to his father. Had Niall dreamed all of it with Ronan in mind? What would it have been like, growing up here, then be shoved out of it as abruptly as a life being snuffed out? Feeling sorry for Ronan Lynch was like feeling sorry for a shark – the shark wouldn’t appreciate it, either. 

“What is it, maggot?” Ronan’s question came quick and sharp.

Blue coughed to hide her emotions. “Dust! Got a noseful of it. With all these dream things in here, couldn’t someone have dreamed a Roomba?” 

Ronan barked a laugh with some genuine humor in it. The sound of it brightened both Adam and Gansey’s faces and Blue felt her heart swell. Again. These boys. All the things that remained unsaid between her and her boys could be contained in what she felt right now. 

X X X

Ronan, Adam thought, never did anything by halves. No. After a long day of sorting out the dream things in the house, Ronan decided they needed a fire to eat by. He’d built something monstrous in the fireplace and, after he lit it, Adam felt it might consume the house. Ronan seemed to know what he was doing because, eventually, the fire settled down from a conflagration. Now it crackled in the fireplace like a dream of its own, the flames dancing an accompaniment to the music of their voices. Adam saw a face in the flames, a woman screaming. Not now, he thought at Cabeswater. Soon, he promised, and turned his attention toward the others. 

Sometime after eating, they’d all migrated to the couch. The light from the fire reached them, warming their skins to shades more golden. Gansey had taken one end of the couch, Adam the other. Blue had found a pillow and dropped it onto the floor. She sat upon it, leaning her head against Gansey’s knee. Adam took the other end of the couch and Ronan fell between them, throwing his legs across Gansey’s thighs and pillowing his head on Adam’s. Gansey’s eyebrows went up but he said nothing. Had he changed, Adam wondered, or had they all changed? Optimism and wonderment, Gansey had them both, but Adam felt Gansey’s innocence had been modified by the experiences he’d witnessed through Adam and Ronan. Adam decided he’d changed, too. His acceptance of Cabeswater and how to work at fixing the ley line had cause an intrinsic difference,; not to mention standing up to his father. It was easier to accept things offered now, and not assume someone – Gansey – was trying to buy him. His pride may have taken a beating but it was for the best. Adam knew he was much more than his pride. He was the magician Blue’s family had seen for him in the Tarot cards and to help Gansey, help them all, he had to live up to those predictions. 

On the surface, Ronan had changed little but his ability to communicate with the ley line and Cabeswater, not to mention his sheer strength to endure had tempered his steel. He still had the capacity to be dangerous but Adam thought it was less who Ronan was any more. Proving the point to himself, he traced his fingertip around the shell of Ronan’s ear. Ronan batted his fingers away but caught them before Adam could move them completely away, twining their fingers together. Looking beyond Ronan’s shoulder, Adam could see his other hand dangling down to Blue’s lap and how their fingers laced up, too. Gansey sifted through Blue’s choppy hair with the fingers of one hand while the other plucked at Ronan’s socks. Adam closed his eyes, drinking it in – the warmth of the fire and the warmth of their bodies, altogether here and now. 

The Barns was a magical place, almost as incredible as Cabeswater. Their search today had turned up dream items by the scores, though not the one thing Ronan specifically searched for – a way to keep Matthew safe and alive, even if something should happen to Ronan. The secret of Matthew’s existence was something Adam guarded as closely as the secret he kept with Blue. He hadn’t shared the possibility of – the foretold truth of – Gansey’s death with Ronan.

“I don’t want this to end.” 

Gansey’s voice broke through the silence, like a pebble dropped into a still pond. The ripples of that wish washed against Adam and he opened his eyes, looking to Gansey, then at Blue. Her big eyes asked him a question about whether their secret still held. He dipped his chin – it did. Her sigh of relief went unheard amongst them. There were a thousand things Adam might have said. Instead, he reminded Gansey, “We have a test on Monday.” 

“Blow it off,” Ronan rumbled. “We’ll stay here.” 

“We can’t stay here,” Gansey said in mild protest. “We – you – we all have other lives to lead.” 

Ronan cracked open an eye and sneered. “Fuck that.”

“I rather doubt that’s possible, Lynch,” Gansey said with only a faint hint of acerbic wit. 

Adam squeezed Ronan’s hand. He knew what Gansey meant or thought he did. “None of this has to end,” Adam said. Blue craned her neck to meet his eyes and he wondered, were those tears in hers? “We’re not leaving anyone. No one’s going anywhere.” 

Gansey rubbed his lower lip. “I won’t be responsible for holding any of you back.” 

Those words voice in that tone would’ve earned a cuff from Ronan from anyone other than Gansey. As it was, Ronan grunted and dug his heel into Gansey’s thigh. “No one’s holding anyone back.” 

“We can’t stop the future,” Blue said almost at the same time. Adam saw the fragile set to her shoulders, wondered how it cost her to say the words. They couldn’t stop the future, no, but change it. Change it, they must. “Right now, this is important, more important than what may or may not happen.”

“More important than Glendower?” Gansey asked, a mild humor returning to his voice. 

Blue wrinkled her nose at him. “Does everything have to go back to Glendower with you?” 

“Gansey’s boyfriend,” Ronan said with a wicked, almost vicious smile. 

Gansey sounded affronted. “He means no more to me than any of you.” 

“Liar.” 

“I’m hurt,” Gansey said, in near-mockery of himself, “that you’d believe something like that, Ronan.” His hand stopped moving through Blue’s hair and he slapped Ronan’s calf. 

“Fine. Glendower’s your obsession,” Ronan said archly, rolling onto his back and stretching his entire body along the couch, regardless of its other occupants and their complaints.

“We’re your reality,” Blue added before Ronan could insert anything else. Adam was half-surprised she didn’t stick her tongue out at Ronan as well. 

Gansey pointed at Blue, his expression fond in the firelight. Adam didn’t look too closely at them. Instead, he turned his gaze to Ronan, who cocked an eyebrow at him in a wordless challenge. Adam decided to take it, leaning down to kiss Ronan.


End file.
